Well, noboby's ping'd me on it, but I'll fess-up.
 
Early in the year I made the "bold" prediction that the WCHA would again
field only two teams in the tournament because of parity.  While that parity
was (I think) evident up until WCHA tournament time, the level of play was
high enough to almost garner *five* NCAA slots.  BTW, I'd be interested to
know if SCSU would've made it had they beaten Minnesota in the 3v2 game and
Miami had beaten MSU.  Would that have put 5 WCHA teams in the tourney?
 
I also expressed surprise and hope in the Wisconsin coaching staff.  The
surprise is still there, albeit tempered by the knowledge that the changes
weren't as sweeping as I'd hoped.  Their power play was indeed much better,
and injuries certainly wore the team down.  Some undisciplined play near the
end cost them home ice for the WCHAs, then their season, but I attribute that
to the physical weardown caused by the injuries.
 
I noticed that they didn't place one player in the WCHA all-rookie team.
 That plus losing Dauber next year does not bode well for the Cardinal and
White, though Bill Howard has a knack for finding *great* freshman goalies
(CuJo, Carey).  They won't lose too much offense to graduation, and another
Howard miracle could put them back in the top 3 of the WCHA.  I'm still not
thrilled with Jeff Sauer, but I'm less un-thrilled than I used to be.  Or
maybe that's the Mark Johnson influence.
 
I'll see the folks in Milwaukee.  I ordered my tickets just after Cincinnati.
 Course, my folks live in Milwaukee...
 
Steve G
 
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